'This Week' Transcript: Timothy Geithner

You see the Republican leadership say, and you see the president
of the United States say, and you've seen a bipartisan fiscal
commission say, that we need to try to lock in reforms that will bring
about -- about $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 to 12 years.
When they all agree that we have to do it, they agree on the basic
magnitude, the basic -- same basic timeframe, then we have a chance
now to get Congress to lock in some concrete targets and concrete
timelines. And then enforce them there, just to make sure it happens,
and I think we can do that.

AMANPOUR: And yet, this week, when the president made his
speech, certainly, many Republicans thought that they were sort of
ambushed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: And I don't think there's anything courageous about
asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have
any clout on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Is this the right tone, do you think, that will
encourage people like Speaker Boehner to actually come together and,
as you hope, get this thing passed?

GEITHNER: Look, we recognize, the president recognizes, and
Republicans recognize, this is something we have to do and we have to
do it in a bipartisan basis. Neither side has the votes to do this on
their own, and you have to come together to do it.

AMANPOUR: What can you give to the Republicans ahead of this
vote?

GEITHNER: Well, let me step back for one sec.

You know, we, in the years before this crisis, we were piling on
a lot of debt. As a country now, we borrow about 40 cents for every
dollar we spend. We're on an unsustainable path. And that -- again,
that's why it's so constructive and so encouraging you see Republicans
now and Democrats all saying this is an important commitment, and
laying out the same basic order of magnitude cuts that are going to be
necessary.

Now, we have very big disagreements on what the right balance is,
but there are things we agree on and we can lock in today. The things
we're going to disagree on for some time, we can take more time to
resolve.

But what we think we can do is lock in some targets for deficit
reduction, specific timeframe, ways to make sure those happen, that
there are credible enforcing mechanisms, and we can agree on that now
and still give us some room to debate and to disagree and to negotiate
on composition of tax reform.

AMANPOUR: Now that we're talking about budget cuts and that's
the whole conversation in Washington, is that going to damage the
recovery?

GEITHNER: No, I don't -- I think we can do this -- and that's a
very good point, I'm glad you raised it.

One of the reasons why you want to do this in a way that's
balanced and has a medium-term plan, you know, it locks in changes
over several years, is because you need to do this gradually so that
you protect the recovery, and I think we can do that.

But we can make these changes, if we do it carefully, without, I
think, hurting the economy, without adding to the burden on the middle
class, and without gutting or eroding investments in things we need to
make sure we do in the future.

AMANPOUR: So the president, also in his speech, talked about
revenue raising -- taxes, taxes on the wealthy.
GEITHNER: Well, I think it's important for people to recognize
that we cannot afford to extend these tax cuts for the wealthiest 2
percent of Americans. We can't afford it and we have to do tax
reforms.